3,492 bitter recipes

Checkerboard cookies with alternating chocolate and vanilla dough squares in a striking grid pattern. An impressive slice-and-bake cookie for holiday cookie tins and special occasions.

Light summer asparagus soup made with fresh asparagus sauteed until golden, simmered in broth, then strained and thickened with egg yolks and milk. A delicate, thin soup built for warm weather when asparagus is cheap and plentiful.

Old-fashioned honey drop cookies with cinnamon, cloves, and raisins. No refined sugar at all. Soft, chewy, and warmly spiced with a caramel-like sweetness.

Hello Dollys (magic cookie bars) layered with vanilla wafer crumbs, chocolate chips, coconut, pecans, and sweetened condensed milk. No mixing needed, just layer and bake for a gooey, chewy bar.

Peanut fudge is old-school stovetop chocolate fudge made with milk, corn syrup, and unsweetened chocolate, beaten to the classic soft-ball stage and loaded with salted peanuts.

Molasses ginger snaps with the classic crackled tops that form as the dough balls melt and spread. Warmly spiced with ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, these crisp-edged cookies are a holiday baking staple.

Southern spoonbread with sweet corn kernels, sharp cheddar, and crumbled bacon, lifted by whipped egg whites for a soufflé-like rise. Spoon it from the casserole onto plates as a side or light main.

Chocolate coconut cake topped with a boiled coconut-coffee-cocoa glaze that soaks into the warm crumb. Simple pantry ingredients for a rich, fudgy everyday cake with tropical coconut finish.

Mushroom soup concentrate is a homemade replacement for canned condensed mushroom soup, built from fresh mushrooms, butter, onion, celery and broth. Use it in casseroles or thin with milk for a quick bowl.

Lincoln almond cake: a tall white butter cake with chopped blanched almonds folded through, lifted by stiff-beaten egg whites and baked in a bundt pan. Tender, fragrant, snowy-white.

Mushroom stroganoff layers fresh mushrooms with rehydrated dried mushrooms in a sour cream sauce spiked with brandy and sherry, served over buttery egg noodles. A meatless take with serious umami.

Slice-and-bake walnut refrigerator cookies with brown sugar and toasted walnuts in a buttery dough. Roll into logs, chill overnight, slice thin, and bake fresh whenever the craving hits.

Apple dump cake layers canned apple pie filling under a butter pecan cake mix and chopped pecans, topped with sliced butter. No mixing required, five-ingredient dessert.

Jewel cookies (thumbprint cookies) rolled in chopped pecans, baked with a center depression, and filled with jelly or a maraschino cherry. A vintage Christmas cookie tin staple.

Lebkuchen German Christmas cookies blend honey, molasses, cardamom, and clove into a dense spiced dough rolled and cut into shapes. Family tradition, ages and keeps for months.

Melt-in-your-mouth potato muffins: tender yeast-raised rolls with mashed potatoes folded in, brushed with butter and dusted with powdered sugar. An old-fashioned tearoom treat.